A tactile Braille display comprises an array of six pins with three equally spaced pins in each of two parallel columns. Each pin is selectively movable between an elevated position and a lowered position so that there are 64 permutations of possible positions for the six pins. The display can be touched by a blind or visually impaired person and a character, such as a numeral or letter, can be indicated by the positions of the pins similar to the traditional Braille display comprising punched card or other relief patterns.
It is difficult to provide a practical electrically driven tactile Braille display since the requirements include small size and low power. Such displays can use piezoelectric or electromagnetic actuators for the pins. One disadvantage of the piezoelectric actuators is the continuous power consumption needed to maintain the pins in either one of the elevated or lowered positions, even if the display is not being read but is to be maintained for later reading by the user.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved Braille display which enables electrically controlled movement of the pins and enables low power consumption to be achieved.